A ‘Creek’-y, ‘Freaky’ hero

Chad Michael Murray laughs at the notion that he is anything like the teenage heartthrobs he’s playing on the WB network and now on the big screen.

“I was a nerd in high school,” the 21-year-old says. “I didn’t get any girls. So playing these roles is fun. I’m going: ‘Look at this. People think that I’m cool.’ I’m getting to relive high school not getting beat up every day.” Murray is cutting a swath through Hollywood as the love interest of choice for teen girls, having squired Katie Holmes and Michelle Williams on “Dawson’s Creek” and Alexis Bledel on “Gilmore Girls.” This fall, he captures the fancy of Hilarie Burton (from MTV’s “TRL”) on the new WB series “One Tree Hill.” He also plays -- who else? -- Prince Charming to Hilary Duff in the coming film “A Cinderella Story,” a high school-set version.

Murray gets two romantic partners (sort of) in Disney’s new remake of the comedy “Freaky Friday,” about a mother and daughter who wake up one morning to find they have switched bodies. Jamie Lee Curtis plays the mom, Tess, and Lindsay Lohan plays her 15-year-old daughter, Anna, in the film that opened Wednesday. Anna has a crush on Murray’s character, a longhaired, leather-jacketed, motorcycle-riding hottie at her high school.

Director Mark S. Waters says the script described the guy as having the charm and mysteriousness of “a young Johnny Depp, but not working at it.” Waters saw that in Murray’s audition. “His cool just kind of came naturally.”

“I was so confused during the making of this movie,” Murray says, shaking his head. “I had to deal with Jamie Lee as Tess, Jamie Lee as Anna and then Jamie Lee as Jamie Lee, and Lindsay with the three [personalities]. So it was easy to play confused.” Murray’s character gets so confused that, in some of the funniest scenes, he begins falling for Anna’s personality in Tess’ body.

About playing romantic scenes with Curtis, Murray says, “It’s not really that hard to flirt with someone who’s really sexy.” His character is so smitten that he serenades her outside her second-floor window at night with what Waters describes as a “heartbreakingly bad” a cappella version of the Britney Spears song “Baby One More Time.” “I’m basically Disney’s version of a stalker,” Murray jokes.

He says they shot the scene at 4 a.m. in a residential neighborhood. “All the people are out of their houses watching,” Murray says, blushing.

“I’m standing in the middle of the street singing ‘Baby One More Time’ as poorly as possible. I felt like the best way to attack it was just to be really serious about it, really passionate about it. I thought it would be more funny.” Waters says, “It’s great to have a guy who’s cool and good-looking who’s willing to put some egg on his face for a laugh.”

Murray also took care in guiding a nervous Lohan, 17, through her first on-screen kiss, speaking with her beforehand until she felt comfortable. As for himself, “I’d done it so many times, it’s not really what I worry about,” he says. “I’m worried about the rest of the stuff before that. Come on, dude, we all make out. We know what we’re doing.”

While growing up in the suburbs of Buffalo, N.Y., with his father and four siblings, Murray enjoyed playing football and hockey. At 15 he underwent two major operations to remove a section of his small intestine that had become twisted. “It was bad,” he says. “I had a priest with me on my bed at one point because I had 48 ounces of internal bleeding and they didn’t know what was wrong with me.”

During Murray’s two-month hospital stay, a nurse who modeled on the side suggested Murray give modeling a try. He thought it could be a steppingstone to an acting career, so he started working for an agency in Buffalo and traveled to modeling conventions in Orlando, Fla., where he met a Los Angeles agent. Soon after his high school graduation and 18th birthday, Murray moved west and began acting classes and auditioning, while modeling to pay the bills.

Murray soon landed a deal with the WB, turning a guest spot on “Gilmore Girls” into a season-long run and moving on to a stint on “Dawson’s Creek.” He shot three rejected pilots for the network, including “The Lone Ranger,” which aired as a two-hour movie this year.

Although he liked shooting guns and riding horses for “The Lone Ranger,” Murray says he realized “I didn’t want to be wearing a mask for six years.” There was even talk of Murray starring in the WB’s new “Tarzan” series, which debuts this fall with Calvin Klein model Travis Fimmel as Tarzan.

Murray says the man with the right torso got the part: “He’s cut, man. I’d have to go the gym.” Instead, Murray sparked to the pilot script of “One Tree Hill,” about two estranged half-brothers raised in separate households in a small North Carolina town. They jockey for star player status on their high school basketball team and the heart of the same girl, played by Burton. Initially announced for midseason, the show was bumped up to fall and will premiere Sept. 23 after “Gilmore Girls.”

“I chose the character of Lucas because I felt really connected to him,” says Murray, whose mother left his family when he was 10. “He was abandoned by his father in the story, so I felt like I could really bring truth to the character.” Basketball, however, was the one sport Murray didn’t play growing up. When the network screen-tested him for his basketball skills, Murray failed, but he pleaded his case, telling them, “I understand this guy’s life. That’s why I want this. I don’t want this because of the basketball. The show’s not about basketball.” He since has been training intensively.

Murray, who says he isn’t dating anyone right now, recently bought his first home, a Sherman Oaks townhouse, but he won’t be spending much time there soon. Like “Dawson’s Creek” did, “One Tree Hill” shoots in Wilmington, N.C., where Murray was due on set Wednesday, one day after wrapping his role in “A Cinderella Story” and the day “Freaky Friday” opened.

When asked if many journalists have been asking him with whom he’d like to switch bodies, Murray jumps up. “Yes! And I can’t answer that question! I’m happy. I’m content. I don’t want to switch with nobody.”